Node-Red Version 1.0 on BeagleBone

Hardware
1

Hi there,

I'm running Node-Red on a couple of BeagleBone boards (Black and Green). I have just setup a Green with the latest EMMC flasher image and decided to run the upgrade command given on the "Running on BeagleBone Boards" getting started page:

sudo apt upgrade nodejs bb-node-red-installer

This only seems to update me to Node-Red 0.19.6, and I was wondering if an installer has been made or is in the works for Version 1.0?

Thanks in advance,

Max

2

Yes - if you are using the latest Buster images - Called Alpha Testing images on the download site
https://beagleboard.org/latest-images
then do a full upgrade

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

then stop and restart the node-red service

I have updated the docs to point this out

3

That's very useful, thank you. I'll look into this for development, but in production the eMMC is preferred so from my understanding an older version of Node-Red, a different image, or a future Buster eMMC flasher image will need to be used.

Thanks again,

Max

4

In theory you should be able to hand install onto an older device - but you would need to strip out the existing versions - (in your case 0.19 and nodejs 6.x i suspect) and get node.js 10 (or 12) installed, as version 8 goes EOL at end of 2019, and then install Node-RED on top. This should be totally possible - just isn't out of the box.
I don't know what their eMMC plans are re Debian 10 - but you may want to email them direct to ask.

5

I wrote the Alpha Testing Buster image to an SD card and was able to make it a 'flasher' image by changing the "/boot/uEnv.txt" file as laid out here: https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#Debian_Image_Testing_Snapshots
The image flashed to the eMMC successfully and I ran the commands you suggested. The BeagleBone Black I used to test it is now running Node.js v10.15.2 and Node-Red v1.0.2 on Debian Buster, all on the eMMC.
Thanks again for your help!

6

Nice,

apologies if I'm being dense - I'm not quite sure which steps you then took from that page.
If they are simple it would make a nice addition to our BBB docs if you felt like contributing :wink:
Thanks

7

It was very simple. In the uEnv.txt file I just uncommented the line:

cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

I was then able to flash the image to the eMMC like any flasher image from the BeagleBoard latest images site, by inserting the SD card and holding down the S2 button when powering on.
I'd be happy to add that to the docs.

8

Yes please !